FAU Basketball: Owls Suffer Narrow Tourney Defeat to LA Tech
The FAU Men’s basketball team lost a heart breaker in the first round of the C-USA tournament to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, 57-56.
There was no better way for this team to go out than the way they started. Scrapping to an early lead and playing hard every second. It was the definition of the newly founded Owl basketball culture. FAU has never been a great offensive team, that showed last night. What they miss in offense and talent, they make-up for in heart and hustle.
Heading into the C-USA tourney, the Owls were confident. Playing LA Tech, a team they were 1-1 against in the regular season, was solid match-up.
The Owls knew they could win this game and they were in it until the very end. FAU had built a 34-20 lead going into halftime. Their defense was clicking and they found enough offense to stay ahead of LA Tech. However, in the second half, the Owls were hit with a scoring drought. This drought lasted about nine-minutes. LA Tech was able to tie the game up and from there, FAU had to build a new lead, but they couldn’t hold off the Bulldogs again.
The scoring droughts have been a problem all season and this one attributed to FAU’s lowest scoring half all year at 22-points. The Owls had a shot to tie the game with a couple free throws at the end, but they only made one. The loss ends their short tourney run and sends the Owls back to Boca at 17-15 on the season.
“I was proud of how hard (we) fought and competed…(Louisiana Tech) made one more play than we made.”
-Head coach Dusty May on loss to LA Tech, per FAU Athletics
Leading the Owls was the newly named C-USA co-sixth man of the year, Xavian Stapleton with 17-points. Furthermore, Simeon Lepichev contributed 13-points. Anthony Adger had an off game which certainly did not help the Owls cause.
BREAKING | Xavian Stapleton becomes the first @FAU_Hoops player in eight years to win a conference superlative award, as he is named Co-Sixth Man of the Year: https://t.co/zUbUfrtINt
— #WinningInParadise (@FAUAthletics) March 12, 2019
FAU had a very successful season given the circumstances and they should be proud of that. You can expect a full season review here shortly as well as some things that the Owls can do to improve.
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